WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Police have released surveillance footage of a man who allegedly followed a 14-year-old girl into her apartment building Friday morning and tried to rape her.
The assault took place just before 8 a.m. Friday in Washington Heights, when the man followed the girl into her building and trapped her in the stairwell before trying to attack her, police said.
The young woman fought off her attacker and got away, police said, and the suspect fled the scene.
Police described the man as 5-foot-five-inches tall and with a slight build. He is believed to be 20 years old. He was last seen wearing blue jeans and a white, short sleeve collared shirt.
Anyone with information related to the incident is asked to to call NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 800-577-TIPS (8477).
DNAinfo.com New York’s Crime & Safety Report for the area, from last fall, shows incidents of rape have dropped in the nearly two decades following 1993, but an uptick in the crime was registered in 2010.
In Inwood, rape went up 29.4 percent in 2010 compared to 2009. Washington Heights saw a 40 percent increase during the same time span.
